Took delivery of a Witch hat Morgana stereo pair today. The reports would seem to be correct after a limited period.
Very nice.
Removing the naim supplied pair I noticed that which is shown in the picture.
This was new a few weeks ago btw.
Any thoughts?
I kinda would have expected something a little bit more special for a near on 9k amp. Or maybe what appears to be off the shelf twin and earth is deemed to be the best solution. This is an observation, not a complaint.
That’s what the Naim standard DIN4 to XLR cable comprises. As you say, Naim found this worked well.
Which is fine. Maybe dress it up a little though. Reminds me of the wiring in my dear departed Vantage. I guess that’s small scale high end British engineering
Sometimes it’s just best not to know 
Best just to hide it behind the kit and forget about it. That’s what I do. 
They just cut the blue wire and done? Is it a power cable they use as standard DIN-XLR?
Yep, that’s the stuff……….B & Q’s finest mains cable. 
It’s nothing particularly exotic - mains flex is about right - but it is ideal for purpose and does something really good. I’ve had plenty of different alternatives through my system (although not the mega money ones) including a number of highly rated DIY options, and I’ve listened extensively to other alternatives when I was at Naim, but still I keep coming back to the standard cable; there’s just something about it that you end up missing with the others.
When I was at Naim it was hard to say whether it was something to be slightly embarrassed about, or to be really proud of - choose the lead that sounded best, even if it was just a piece of flex with zero audiophile credibility…
Had a similar observation with the xlr cable on my olive nap250. I was so unimpressed i was " forced" to get a WH non Morgana version.
But yes, no matter how good it sounds, the naim version is nothing special.
With Super Lumina as the only exception of cource 
I experimented a bit with that interconnect and the 135. The limitiation is not the cable but the XLR-connector and the soldering.
I replaced the Naim XLRs with Witch Hat Morgana XLRs when I was running my NAP300 (non DR). Not because I was dissatisfied with Naim but because I needed a longer lead.
To me (and my wife who noticed without prompting), they outperformed the Naim cables by a fair margin. I didn’t feel there was anything missing, only positive gains in clarity, pace, timbre and a greater sense of space and flow. Not “hifi” sounding but more realistic sounding.
I tried going back to the Naim leads and although they were perfectly acceptable in isolation, they were a sonic downgrade in comparison.
It could be that my ageing Naim cables had gone off somehow over time and several moves but the improvement was enough to encourage further exploration of Witch Hat offerings.
Agree with all you have said. I am delighted with them.
I find these discussions and comments interesting. I do wonder sometimes if all of us have such a poor setup and poor mains etc that we do not appreciate the true values of using the bell wires between our 252 and 300 as well as the naca5 speaker cable. Personally the biggest bang I got was speaker cable chord clearway x. I still have the original din xlr leads though
I’m using Morgana XLR’s with the 300DR at present, keeping them in for a month or so then switching back to my SuperLumina…I truly wonder what I’ll think.
I’ve had the Morgana XLRs since about a month after I got my 300DR a few years ago. I have a new cartridge on the way. Maybe after I get it burned in and used to the sound I’ll switch the Naim OEM DIN/XLR cables back in and see what I think.
It might very well be that the higher up you go on electronics the better the original sounds. It’s a rather normal trick to brighten cables to make you think sound got better but what they then do is to compensate for issues earlier in the chain. I have 552 and NDX2 soon and have used Morgana for a year or so on my 300DR but will for sure AB against the original again when system is warm and running. After all it’s the cable Naim developed and tuned against.
I will at some point get used NACA5 in too to see what my ears think.
I’ve been using Morgana din to xlrs from Snaxo to 300drs for around a year now and have been quite happy with them. I’ve recently put the Naim originals back in the system just out of curiosity and the only difference I’ve noticed is the Morganas seem to give more volume.
When I originally fitted the new Morganas I thought they sounded better but perhaps they were just louder, and I also assumed they would improve after burn in.
Not sure where to go now, it’s a good half hour’s job swapping the 4 cables with having to dismantle the ( Mana ) stack to get access. I’ll maybe swap back to Morganas in a few weeks and see if I can tell any difference.
Just swapped the Morgana out, SuperLumina back in (300DR)…very first impressions, using Ese and The Vooduu People’s Up In Smoke (an album I know very well) - SL gives a livelier, more ‘live in the studio’ (how the album was recorded) sound. Album sounds ‘fresher’. Bit toppier on crash cymbals (the title track!).
Does make me wanna dance more.
Morgana - a warmer, ‘denser’ sound, very solid, perhaps bassier, very enjoyable but it’s perhaps easier to have my attention wander…we’ll see. I’m in no rush.
As said, very initial impression only using one album - and I am crap at describing sounds, my ears also are none too audiophile!
Will leave SL in for a couple of weeks then switch for the final decision. There is an airiness and liveliness to SL which is quite bewitching (er…), I have to say.
